Scott was a young man felt called to become a pastor.  He came from a really close family. He finished college and then went off to seminary. After finishing seminary he came back home before going to his first church. He visited with all of his relatives for about a week. He stopped by the church and talked to his hometown pastor. The pastor asked him if he would like to preach that upcoming Sunday. Scott felt honored and took the pastor up on the invitation. Sunday morning came and after hours, yes, even days, of preparation he stepped up behind the pulpit, looked out at the congregation of friends and relatives and started to expound the knowledge that he had learned.

Well, he had hardly begun, when his young niece, Kathleen, about six years old, stepped out into the aisle and put her hands on her hips, her left foot out in front of the other, her head cocked to one side. Then she said in a very loud and clear voice for her age, "Uncle Scott, you don't know what you are talking about!" 

 

It's hard to impress the people at home, isn't it? Even Jesus struggles with this in our reading from the Gospel of Mark.  Since his baptism in Galilee, Jesus has been going about the countryside healing people, casting out demons, calming storms and even raising a girl from the dead.  From the beginning of his ministry, Mark’s gospel tells us that the people were amazed and that “his fame spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.”  Crowds now followed him everywhere he went.  The people hung on his every word and action just waiting to see what he would do or say next.

 

Regardless of all this attention in other places… at home Jesus was just Jesus - the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and his sisters who are not named in our reading. This is just Jesus. The guy they grew up with. The one they learned together with in the synagogue. The one they played with in the streets. Who does he think he is teaching us in the synagogue?  Unfortunately, Jesus doesn’t find any hometown advantage when he speaks in the synagogue before his family and friends. In fact, Jesus’ message meets with disapproval from those in his hometown to the point that they take offense at him. 

And what about Jesus’ immediate family?  I can just imagine the jealousy and anger his own brothers and sisters would have felt toward him.  First he leaves the family high and dry to go pursue this itinerant preaching gig and then he comes back and starts to tell them about the scriptures.  If that’s not enough he actually wants them to believe that he’s the Messiah.  Their brother, the one they teased and harassed as they were growing up!  These friends and relatives of Jesus had waited for the coming of the Messiah for their entire life but they had expectations….and the boy they grew up with and played games with did not meet their expectations.  The people of Jesus’ hometown missed seeing God’s saving grace that day because they couldn’t see beyond their expectations of what God should look like or how God should work in our world.

How often do we miss seeing God’s activity in our world because we’ve boxed God in with our own expectations?  How often do we miss the wonder of God’s love revealed in the commonplace?

A number of years ago a movie came out called “Oh God”.  Many of you will remember this movie in which John Denver was a store manager who meets God, played by George Burns. John Denver gets a letter telling him he has been called to meet with God. He thinks it just a big joke but he goes to the designated meeting place anyway.
There is just an empty room and the voice of God. He wants God to show himself. Reluctantly God appears, looking quite a bit like George Burns. God stands there as an old man with thick glasses, dressed in baggy pants, tennis shoes, a windbreaker, and a golf hat! John Denver stares, mouth open. God replies, “Well, what did you expect?”

What do we expect?  Do we expect that God will reveal Godself in the common ordinary things of our lives or do we, like the people of Jesus’ hometown, hold onto some ideal of God’s magical, supernatural appearance in our lives?  If the latter is true than we, like the people of Jesus’ hometown we will miss out on God’s activity in our world.

We’ll miss out on God’s activity shown through the actions of God’s people like Bud & Grace.  Bud & Grace are about the most common people you could ever meet.  These common people, however, were two weeks into their second visit to the Ocean Springs, MS area when I met them.  Bud & Grace, though volunteers, were in charge of the distribution center at Camp Victor where I stayed with other adults during a mission trip to Mississippi several months after hurricane Katrina.  Bud had his own business back home that he kept going via telephone while he unpacked boxes, moved huge stacks of canned water and helped coordinate efforts in the center.  Grace, a grandmotherly woman, busied herself sorting and folding blankets, organizing and training volunteers, answering many questions and keeping up with the mounds of paper work and rules related to running a distribution center for disaster relief. Bud & Grace, ordinary people like you and I, were certainly the presence of God in that place for many people who had lost everything in the hurricane.

The God that we worship doesn’t fit in any box that we can construct. With God we must always expect the unexpected.  God shows up in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.  God showed up in the life of Jesus of Nazareth – a carpenter - who showed the world what a life lived with God’s values looks like.  God’s presence showed up in an unlikely crew of disciples sent to proclaim God’s message. God even shows up in our lives those sent to proclaim the same message.

It’s unexpected that God would show up in our ministry… we’re unlikely choices.   That’s not a put down.. it’s fact… we’re nothing special – just ask your hometown crowd… your family and friends who know everything about you.  Yet, just like the disciples, we are called to speak the message of God’s love to all the world..  in the common everyday places of our lives.  God’s message doesn’t require some special packaging or fanfare.  We don’t have to be trained – the disciples weren’t.  Unexpectedly we are sent powered by the Holy Spirit to tell others through our words and deeds that God loves them.  God certainly shows up in unexpected places and unexpected ways! Amen.